Little pieces of what used to be the pavement on Highway 395 are ground up on Thursday morning.
Photo by Kurt Hildebrand.
Gardnerville will be celebrating independence from the Highway 395 construction project over the Fourth of July holiday.
The state plans to temporarily reopen all four lanes of the highway, according to Nevada Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meg Ragonese.
She said that one of the reasons construction started early was to finish the work to reopen all four lanes for the holiday weekend.
“NDOT’s construction partners also coordinated with the school district to help facilitate school bus and other school-related access during the last week of school,” she said. School let out on Friday.
Overnight paving work is scheduled to begin June 23.
“Prior to overnight pavement operations, the current excavation and other roadway work requires a large amount of traffic control and construction flagging staff not available for multiple shifts per day,” she said. “We are also conscientious of scheduling construction to reduce potential overnight noise impacts on nearby residential neighborhoods.”
The first week of work on Highway 395 has seen the southbound lanes of the highway dug up between Gilman and Waterloo Lanes.
On Tuesday morning, Main Street Gardnerville Director Jen Nalder held a meeting with members to discuss issues with the work that has snarled Highway 395 through town.
Nalder said she didn’t know that Gilman was going to be closed, requiring her to detour to get to Gardnerville Station in the S-Curve.
A text messaging system set up by the Nevada Department of Transportation to alert residents of road closures didn’t start until Wednesday, but has provided steady reports since.
Residents may receive text notifications on the project by texting “DOWNTOWN” to 866-540-8466, or by calling (775) 379-8777.
“If you guys have driven down Main Street you know we don’t have a road anymore,” Nalder said.
She said construction won’t last quite as long as originally anticipated.
“It should continue for 6-8 weeks,” she said. “That eight-week mark is striping the final touches on the road. We’re not going to be in an active construction zone for 6-8 weeks, but we are going to have some differences to the traffic flow.”
Work on the northbound lanes is expected to begin after the Fourth of July.
Businesses on the north side of Main Street will be affected more than the south side, because there is very little rear access to those sites on that side of the highway.
The last phase is 19 days of work across the entire highway around July 26, according to a timeline issued by contractor Sierra Nevada Construction.
“We’re trying to suggest alternative routes for people to go,” Nalder said.
